Your favorite linux distro?

[ShinraStrife]

I started off with an eMachine Windows ME computer when I was 8 years old. After I had spent a year with windows I wasn't too thrilled with the lack of customization, hardware support, and open source software choices. It was then I started learning about this different kernel, linux. Linux to me was this whole different world in that I could interact with computers on a more engaging level.

 

Here I was at the age of 10, I had a new HP pavilion desktop with windows XP and, using Ububtu (my first ever linux distro), was able to get my eMachine to perform better than my newer computer that had the latest OS Microsoft had to offer. I had more access to pen testing tools (which I was fascinated with at the time, like most technologically inclined destructive brats XD), I had a ton of free open-source software at my fingertips, and I could customize the looks of it better than I could Windows.

 

I found the limitations of debian based distros to be quite annoying in later years though, and by the time I was at the age of 17 I had tried OpenSUSE, Fedora, CentOS, FreeBSD and countless other linux distros. I then decided to take a look at Arch. Arch Linux was love at first sight. There were no setup guides, no pre-packaged software, and no automatic updaters. Even the setup process was done the way I saw fit. I installed only the packages I wanted.

 

I had a semi-frustrating time getting it setup. I was still a bit of a noob when it came to bash, and had only rudimentary understanding of how the ext file system worked, but in the end I had built my own slice of linux. I called it Nocturne. I have it setup to pull packages from the AUR and BlackArch repos and it's a pretty good computer to test network security with. I actually had a network engineer I was an intern for, compliment me on how efficient it was at one point. From then on I'd use Windows for gaming and leisure, and Nocturne (ArchLinux) for everything else.

 

I'm now 20 years old (I turn 21 late this month) so I've been using linux for 11 years now... It seems like a lifetime though.

 

Well, that's my journey into linux. Do any of you felow linux users have a favorite distro? And if so why is it your favorite?

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[Czechanada]

Ubuntu and Linux Mint are my favourite choices. For me, they are the simplest to use and have the best compatibility with games. There's also something I like about Unity that I can't describe.

[Daiyus]

I've never been brave enough to try Linux. I've only ever got one complete rig running at a time, and it's used by my whole family; mostly so my wife and daughter can watch TV (we don't have a license so just use catchup). If it goes down it's a hit to everyone. As someone who is primarily a casual user and gamer the hassle it takes to get Linux up and running has always been a major turn-off. I love the idea of being more in control of my PC and supporting open-source software, but when I've got hundreds of games that are designed for Windows, and the rest of what I do is in an internet browser it seems somewhat unproductive to push into Linux. It doesn't even seem to be worth dual booting.

 

As a long time user of Linux would you see any point in me trying to use Linux? There's always that "because I can" factor, and that's wasted me plenty of time in the past; but is there any real reason to jump over in my situation?

[obobski]

Honestly, as quirky-murky as it can be, I like Puppy Linux. Gentoo would be a close second, and I primarily don't use it because of the time required to set it up properly as opposed to the simplicity of Puppy. I like both of them for being lightweight.

 

To Daiyus: for non-gaming tasks, I think modern Linux can be just as good (and Ubuntu is probably a great place to start), but if you have Windows (or OS X, or a magic squatting gnome, etc) working for you already, why rock the boat? One advantage for *nix is that its generally free, so if you're up against needing a (paid) Windows/OS X/etc upgrade for a machine that's just meant to be a web browser/email station/whatever it may be worth seriously considering *nix instead. For gaming, that's still largely in the domain of Windows. There seems to be a somewhat rising popularity (or at least awareness) of gaming on Linux, and there's always WINE, but in terms of plug-n-play compatibility Windows still generally leads the pack for gaming.